Apple said it 'supported' 450,000 US manufacturing jobs last year

Apple on Monday touted its spending $60 billion on more than 9,000 American manufacturers last year, a 10 percent increase from 2017, that in the end supported more than 450,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.

The tech giant added that since 2011, the total number of jobs created and supported by it in the United States alone has more than tripled — from almost 600,000 to 2 million across all 50 states.

In the release, the iPhone maker cited component manufacturer Finisar in Sherman, Texas, as a great example of its job creation. Through Apple's “Advanced Manufacturing Fund,” it awarded the once-small town company $390 million to create the now “bustling operation.”

Apple featured a 59-year-old machine operator in its release, saying the investment turned his life around.

“You take an old guy like me that’s been doing one job for 27 years, and now I’m learning something new every day,” Johnny Jackson, a former shipping operator, said.

“The training here is tremendous — you’ll be good because you’ve been trained by people who are good.”

To date, Finisar has create more than 500 jobs with Apple’s investment.